cycle: 1. n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker
wants more of (noted hacker Bill Gosper described himself as a
"cycle junkie"). One can describe an instruction as taking so many
`clock cycles'. Often the computer can access its memory once on
every clock cycle, and so one speaks also of `memory cycles'. These
are technical meanings of cycle. The jargon meaning comes from
the observation that there are only so many cycles per second, and
when you are sharing a computer the cycles get divided up among the
users. The more cycles the computer spends working on your program
rather than someone else's, the faster your program will run.
That's why every hacker wants more cycles: so he can spend less time
waiting for the computer to respond. 2. By extension, a notional
unit of _human_ thought power, emphasizing that lots of things
compete for the typical hacker's think time. "I refused to get
involved with the Rubik's Cube back when it was big. Knew I'd burn
too many cycles on it if I let myself." 3. vt. Syn. bounce (sense
4), 120 reset; from the phrase `cycle power'. "Cycle the machine
again, that serial port's still hung."
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